Educator Certification is professional recognition educators can achieve by adhering to best practices and focusing student energies on achieving personalized, as well as class goals.

Elizabeth Thompson

Elizabeth Thompson has been recognized for achieving 17 consecutive years of certification. The East St. John Elementary School teacher is in her 20th year of teaching.

She said she enjoys using the Renaissance principles to allow her students to practice reading on their own levels, while she monitors their books to make sure they are at the appropriate reading level. She said she loves seeing her students develop a love of reading and watching them begin to have discussions about their books.

“They are even making suggestions to each other about what books they need to read. Believe it or not, I have had to ask a few to put their book away because they were reading it while they were supposed to be doing math or another subject - yes, some have even had some recess time taken away,” she said. “Several years ago, I had a parent come to me and ask what I had done to her child. Apparently, he had asked his mom to go to the library to get some books to read. She was delighted and shocked because he hated to read.”

Melissa Shuhart

Melissa Shuhart was recognized for achieving nine consecutive years of certification. The Fifth Ward Elementary School teacher has been teaching in St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools for 13 years. She has spent 12 of them in fourth-grade classrooms.

She said uses Accelerated Reader to enrich her students’ minds with high-interest books that they may not have normally read.

“I became a teacher because I wanted to introduce children to my favorite childhood books,” she said.

Accelerated Reader is computer software that allows students to test reading comprehension at their individual level.

The information in this article and
pictures were provided by the St. John the Baptist Parish Public School System's
Communications Specialist Jennifer Boquet.